Who is the Current Education Minister of India?

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Jagpreet

26 July, 2024

Who is the Current Education Minister of India?

“Education is the one thing no one can take away from you” – Elin Nordegren

Our Indian constitution very specifically gives the right to education to every single citizen of the country, so no one can take it away from you. Educational infrastructure is the strength pillar of a country’s socio-economic development. In the voyage of nation-building, preparing strong minds with the light of education is the aim of the Ministry of Education, Government of India.

The MoE is headed by the education minister who is a cabinet minister belonging to the ruling political party. He plays a critical role in planning and overseeing the needs of the population as a representative head. After every 5 years, the education minister is changed as per the results of the Lok Sabha elections. Currently, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan is the education minister of India.

Let’s learn about his profile in detail and the work he did.

About Hon’ble Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Current Education Minister of India

Shri Dharmendra Pradhan hails from the Talcher region in Odisha. He was born on June 26, 1969, in the family of former Bhartiya Janta Party MP, Dr, Debendra Pradhan. His political interest and leadership qualities were visible from his early college days only. In the proceeding days, he served as the ABVP Secretary and worked as an election in charge in Bihar. He was also involved in the ABVP party affairs in Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Odisha. Later in 1998, he followed the footsteps of his father and joined the BJP. Working for the party ever since, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Minister for Education took charge of his office on 13th June 2024. He represents the Sambalpur seat in the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament. In addition to this, he is also the Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Programmes Launched by the Current Education Minister of India 

  1. In March 2024, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched various initiatives for school and teacher education. He launched the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) and National Mission for Mentoring (NMM) programmes. Along with this, he launched printed books on NMM and NPST, guidelines and videos of SCERTs/DIETs, video of Vidya Samiksha Kendra, 200 TV channels and 52 primers in the Indian language.  (DIETs represent 613 District Institutes of Education and Training)

  2. In February 2024, the Union Education Minister launched the new SWAYAM Plus platform. The platform provides professional development and employability-focused programmes.

  3. In Orissa, he launched the project ODISERV in the Sambalpur area to train young graduates for employment opportunities in the financial services area. It is a 100-hour training programme which focuses on skills concerning the banking, finance and insurance industries.  Under the project, ODISERV, over 1100 students have already been trained and some have also received job offers.

An Overview of the Ministry of Education 

The Ministry of Education was created on 26th September 1985 by the 174th amendment to the Government of India Rules, 1961. Earlier it was known by the name Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). However, the Union Cabinet decided to change the name on July 29 to Ministery of Education to define the focus of the ministry clearly. It actually got back the name which was given after Independence. The Ministry of Education has two sub-departments which cater to different grades of the Indian education system.

  • Department of School Education and Literacy

  • Department of Higher Education

Both these departments have distinct roles and functions. Schemes and programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Nationwide Elementary Education and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan among others fall under the umbrella of the Department of School Education and Literacy.

Former Education Ministers of India

Here is the list of education ministers who assumed their office since independence:

Name of the Minister  Tenure 
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad  1947 to 1958 
K.L Shirmali  1958 to 1963
Humayun Kabir  September 1963 to November 1963 
M.C Chagla  1963 to 1966
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed  1966 to 1967
Triguna Sen  1967 to 1969 
V.K.R.V Rao 1969 to 1971
Siddhartha Shankar Ray  1971 to 1972 
S. Nurul Hasan  1972 to 1977
Pratap Chandra Chunder  1977 to 1979 
Karan Singh  1979 to 1980 
B. Shankaranand  January 1980 to October 1980 
Shankarrao Chavan  October 1980 to August 1981
Sheila Kaul  1981 to 1984
K.C Pant  December 1984 to September 1985 
P.V Narasimha Rao  1985 to 1988
P. Shiv Shankar  1988 to 1989 
V.P Singh  December 1989 to November 1990
Raj Mangal Pande  November 1990 to June 1991
Arjun Singh  1991 to 1994 
P.V Narasimha Rao (twice) December 1994 to February 1995 
Madhovrao Scindia  February 1995 to January 1996 
P.V Narasimha Rao (thrice) January 1996 to May 1996 
Atal Bihari Vajpayee  May 1996 to June 1996 
S.r Bommai  1996 to 1998 
Murli Manohar Joshi  1998 to 2009 
Arjun Singh (twice) 2004 to 2009 
Kapil Sibal  2009 to 2012 
M.m Pallam Raju  2012 to 2014 
Smriti Irani  2014 to 2016
Prakash Javadekar  2016 to 2019 
Ramesh Pokhriyal  2019 to 2021
Dharmendra Pradhan  2021 till now

Summing Up 

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan assumed office as the education minister of India for the second term. Throughout his political tenure, he has taken many initiatives to upgrade the quality of school and higher education. The education minister of India has to serve a tenure of five years in office and may or may not change once the new government is elected.


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